Tag: Prayer

“You need to look past what is happening to what I am doing. More importantly, you need to pray past what is evident before you and fully comprehend what I am doing. Once you understand My motives and decide to belong to My plan, you will be able to rejoice, even through the hardest times. Fearlessness does not come from knowledge; it comes from understanding My purposes and embracing them.

“I have an overall plan. It has been in motion since the beginning of time. It is a plan to redeem mankind. The unfolding of that plan has been told to you in My Word. How it will end will be no surprise if you come close to Me and My Word. Everything will happen as I have ordained it. I have brought you into this plan for you to play your part in its execution. Your part has never changed. It is to tell as many as you can about the sacrifice that was accomplished for them on the cross, so they have the opportunity to embrace that gift. Everything else in your world is the working out of My desired end. Each action, every association, incident, event, and word that is said brings you closer to the culmination of all that must unfold. If you see and concentrate only on the individual piece, it may become big enough in your eyes to look like the whole for a short time. You will lose your focus and concern yourself with the immediate, instead of what is important.

“I want the last soul to have the opportunity to hear about Jesus so that he or she might not perish. I need you to maintain your focus. Remember the important, as I see it. It will always be my love for people and My desire for none to perish. If you understand My love for souls and share that desire with Me, your perspective will rise above the urgent that may be a distraction to you.”

Isaiah 48:3 NIV

“I foretold the former things long ago, my mouth announced them and I made them known; then suddenly I acted, and they came to pass.”

Matthew 5:13 AMP

You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste (its strength, its quality) how can its saltness be restored? It is not good for anything any longer but to be thrown out and trodden under foot by men.

John 4:34 NIV

“My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent Me and to finish his work.”

 

Each of us must know what we are called to do. We all have a purpose in life that coincides with our Lord’s overall plan. Difficult (even catastrophic) circumstances should have no bearing on that purpose. In fact, the impossible situations we may face may make room for the miracle-working power of God.

The eternal plan of God is unfolding before our eyes. I am convinced that this generation will see the culmination of all that has been promised in the Word of God. What is taking place before us is the vehicle that our Lord is using to implement that plan. The heart and purpose behind that plan has always been, and always will be, the souls of men and women. Nothing should distract us from that purpose.

Our part in God’s plan is vital to Him. Our specific missions are planned well in advance of the daily circumstances we face. Nothing changes because we face hardships, have difficulties, or find ourselves in peril. They are part of the unfolding, but never important enough to cause us to deviate from our mission and calling. Rising above the immediate and seeing past the imminent, will allow us to freely take part in the wonder of the eternal. The view is beautiful from there because the Lord is the only focus.

Keep my eyes focused on You, Lord,

Jim Corbett

“I know that you only have the maturity to come to Me when you are in need. You even praise Me at present because it makes you feel good and gives you feelings of satisfaction. Your requests for forgiveness are presented so that you might savor the feelings of being forgiven, not because your offense has caused Me anguish. I understand. With My former creation, the angels as you know them, I only required obedience. Even then that requirement was too much for some of them. Some chose to depart from what I had created them to be and were separated from those I could trust. I now have those remaining trustworthy ones by My side.

“You, however, will be used for different purposes. You will be My priests and kings. I desire fellowship and intimate interaction. Disobedience once again is an indicator of those who are trustworthy and those who are not. Sin shows you the difference between separation and communion, so that you can show Me your preference. My work in your heart, your new birth, has made you capable of making free, unhindered choices and joining Me in true spiritual fellowship, if you desire to do so.

“As you continually choose My new life in you over your old life, you will eventually have the heart to come to Me for My desires and My purposes rather than yours. You will be a true companion, one that I can trust to implement My wishes. You will be trustworthy, because you will have My best interests at heart in all you do. Your pining for comfort will be replaced by the desire to do what is best for Me. It is My formula for the eternal future. My heart has always been for your best interests. When My salvation process is completed collectively in your hearts and My redeemed church is functioning in this kind of completion, We will flow in unity through the eternities of the eternities. Our unity will be the mainstay of an unbeatable formula. I will have another creation I can trust. I will then go on.”

Eph. 3:10 AMP

[The purpose is] that through the church the complicated, many-sided wisdom of God in all its infinite variety and innumerable aspects might now be made known to the angelic rulers and authorities (principalities and powers) in the heavenly sphere.

Rev. 5:10 AMP

And you have made them a kingdom (royal race) and priests to our God, and they shall reign [as kings] over the earth!

Rev. 22:4-5 AMP

4) They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads.

5) And there shall be no more night; they have no need for lamplight or sunlight, for the Lord God will illuminate them and be their light, and they shall reign [as kings] forever and ever (through the eternities of the eternities).

 

Most of us still foolishly believe that this salvation process is all about us. Prevalent teachings give us a picture of God straining to deliver us from ourselves only for our good, focusing on the salvation process as our only concern. Nothing could be further from the truth.

In the Word, we have been shown that God is a creative, eternal God, no beginning and no end. He is known to have created at least one other form of being to implement His purposes. We are, as far as has been revealed to us, the second; and we will work with the first, reigning as priests and kings for eternities and for whatever He chooses to do next.

I am convinced that the zeal with which we pursue His will at present and how trustworthy we are with his gifts will have impact on our place in His eternal plan. Our stewardship shows our heart. Our focus shows our nature.

For us to limit the nature of God by thinking that we are all that He has on His agenda is nonsense and limits our ability to understand the wonder of His nature. Such small thinking causes us to become prideful and self-serving.

Does He love us? Of course! Does He care about us? Of course! Does He want to have intimacy with us? Of course! Is there more that He is concerned about than our portion in His life? I believe that there is. It would behoove us to understand our privilege in being part of His plan, rather than being so hopelessly selfish as to think that we are everything and the only ones in His plan.

Wanting to understand more clearly,

Jim Corbett

“Too often I find you engaged in battles that you are not supposed to fight. They take your eyes off the real battles, exhaust your energy; and distract you from your real place with Me. Great challenges, which will require the implementation of many of the character traits of Jesus, are ahead. Each one could mean overwhelming victories or many distractions, depending on how you approach them.

“When Jesus walked in your world, He simply applied Our relationship to any situation that He faced. He did not apply personality, wit, or His own wisdom. He implemented what I asked Him to do. That does not mean that He did not have His own wisdom or ideas. He was the wisest man that was ever born of woman. He was showing you how to overcome every challenge in your life. He was giving you the way to rise above your earthly life and enter into My kind of life.

“As I show you what needs to change in your life, I am not asking you to change it yourself; I am asking you to come to Me and be changed. As you face challenges, I am not asking you to fight what is seen; I am asking you to come to Me and allow Me to show you what is really happening. As you understand what is really happening, I am not asking you to take the battle on; I am asking you to have fellowship with Me while I overcome every obstacle in your path. Don’t you see that wealth, power, wisdom, and strength are given to you because of Our association, and implemented by that association? All of your challenges are really opportunities for Me to win the battle for you.

“Why wouldn’t you rest with Me while the battle rages all around you? Why wouldn’t you allow Me to impart Myself to you to change you into the likeness of Jesus? Why wouldn’t you decide once and for all that you can really do nothing of yourself and submit to My abilities? To do anything else is foolish, time-consuming, fruitless, and exhausting. Come and rest from your battles, no matter what they are. I will give you victory as We fellowship.”

Exod. 14:13-14 AMP

13) Moses told the people, Fear not; stand still (firm, confident, undismayed) and see the salvation of the Lord which He will work for you today. For the Egyptians you have seen today you shall never see again.

14) The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace and remain at rest.

Ps. 140:7 AMP

O God the Lord, the Strength of my salvation, You have covered my head in the day of battle.

Phil. 2:12b-13 AMP

12b) …work out (cultivate, carry out to the goal, and fully complete) your own salvation with reverence and awe and trembling (self-distrust, with serious caution, tenderness of conscience, watchfulness against temptation, timidly shrinking from whatever might  offend God and discredit the name of Christ).

13) [Not in your own strength] for it is God Who is all the while effectually at work in you [energizing and creating in you the power and desire], both to will and to work for His good pleasure and satisfaction and delight.

 

At one point in our lives, Merry and I had to face some incredible battles and personal failures. Some applied to our lives, and others concerned the sin of others. During those times, we had to determine who we really were, what the real battle was; and how it was to be won. Often, personal inabilities and agitating fears would hamstring any opportunities to see clearly.

Once, while engaged in a particular situation for what seemed like endless days, I found myself completely exhausted. I was overcome with manufactured imaginations and sleepless night scenarios. These lies, although they appeared as truth, were nothing more than lies. I knew it in my head, but I focused on them until I was overcome with fear and worry. My pleadings to my Father in heaven seemed to fall on deaf ears.

In my search for answers, the Lord led me to a comment by Charles G. Trumbull, which I now go to when worry sets in. He said, “Worry is sin; a black murderous, God defying, Christ rejecting sin. It is a sin to worry about anything, any time, whatever. We will never know the victory over worry and anxiety until we begin to treat it as sin. For such it is. It is a deep-seated distrust of the Father, who assures us again and again that even the falling sparrow is in His care.”

What the Lord was telling me was that my worry would be consumed in the presence of my Father, once I understood that my worry came from not really trusting Him. It was the sin of not believing completely in the work of the cross and the promise of the completed work in me. I was a hypocrite in my faithless prayers and empty words. The problem wasn’t the problem; it was the sin of my unbelief that God was after.

It is amazing to me how worry dissipates and problems are solved on the lap of my Father in heaven, trusting Him to accomplish what I can’t. There, He leads me to the understanding once again that the battles and my failures are His, and they are won by Him. My trust in that ability is foundational to every challenge I will face. To do anything less forces me to engage in battles that are not mine to fight, with weapons that are totally inadequate for me to win.

Needing to do it Your way, Lord,

Jim Corbett